James Decker - Fallout

“What?” Dao Ming asked.

The way she said it didn’t sit right with me. I heard her concern for him, sure, but something else, too. Dread, maybe.

“Do you know something about this?” I asked her.

“No, I… I’m just worried for him.”

“Worried for him?” I said, my voice rising. “Worried for him? You dragged him into the middle of something that almost got him killed!”

“Someone had to do it,” she said, her voice flat.

“He’s a kid, you lunatic!”

“It had to be him,” she said. “Gohan is obsessed with Alexei, with all of you, he—”

“He’s nine,” I said. “Nine years old. He lost his whole family.”

“It’s why he hates them.”

“So you twisted him to—”

“No, he saw how dangerous the haan are before he ever met me. He wanted to honor his mother’s memory—”

“He is nine!” I barked.

“He doesn’t have the luxury of being a child,” she said. “Who is going to protect him? You? Dragan and I will prepare him for this world.”

“Don’t even try and tell me Dragan knows about this,” I told her, and she fell quiet. No. Dragan didn’t know. He didn’t know, and she was afraid for him to find out. Not out of fear of what he’d do to her, but out of fear he’d abandon her.

“I care about your father, and your brother,” she said. “And you, Sam, no matter what you think.”

“Why would Alexei go back to Xinzhongzi?” I asked. “What did he need to get at your place before he went?” She didn’t answer, but we both knew. Dao-Ming convinced Alexei that she needed Gohan dead. In his mind, he’d failed her and Dragan. He was going to try to fix it. He was going to try to take out Gohan.

“There may still be time to stop him,” she said, her voice faint.

“Dao-Ming, I swear,” I said in a low voice. “If anything happens to him…”

I petered off as something on the floor behind her caught my eye. A dark blotch had been smeared there. A haphazard series of dots trailed away from it, around the corner and into the shadows.

“Sam,” she said. “Please believe—”

I hung up on her, still staring at the floor.

“Sam?” Vamp asked. I held up one hand, approaching the stain.

“Shh.”

When I got closer, I could see it was blood. I grabbed the electric lantern from the floor and shined it ahead. The drops turned steadier, the farther they went.

“Someone else is here,” I whispered.

“Where’s your gun?”

“I lost it in the aircar; it’s gone.”

A faint sob echoed from somewhere in the darkness.

“Shuang,” Vamp whispered. I nodded.

“Come on.”

I stood, and followed the trail. It led down the empty factory floor, through one of the open doorways at the far end where a dim light now shined. I stepped through into what looked like a large, empty utility closet. Past a half-toppled section of shelving, I saw a man’s leg, the shoe partway off and the trouser cuff hiked up. The light came from somewhere behind the shelving. I waved Vamp over, pointing to the foot, and he nodded. We crept around the corner, and looked.

Chong lay facedown on the floor, blood pooled around him while Qian knelt over him. She gazed down at the body in front of her with a calm expression on her face. Somewhere behind them, out of view, I heard Shuang begin to sob.

Chong’s bugged, glassy eyes stared from his bloodless face. The back of his skull had been caved in and Qian’s red hand still dangled just above the hole, drops of blood falling from her fingertips.

I ducked back before she could see me, and opened my tablet. I dropped the remote into the shared space, and contacted Dao-Ming again.

The first stored endpoint. There’s a haan here. We’re in trouble, I sent.

“I know you’re there,” Qian said.

Dao-Ming didn’t answer me, but she had to have gotten the message. I had to just hope she’d do something, send help, maybe.

“I know you can hear me,” Qian said. “Come here.”

I came around the corner where she could see me, and Vamp followed. Qian had risen, standing over Chong’s body, while behind her, Shuang shivered against the wall, hugging her knees. I saw no sign of Nix.

“Give me the gate remote,” she said, taking a step toward us. “Or she dies.”

Something invisible grabbed Shuang by the ankle, and she whimpered as her leg came up off the floor. She struggled as Qian dragged her across the concrete and then hoisted her up, dangling her as if she were on some invisible hook, so that they were face to face.

“Please,” Shuang whispered. “Please, just do what she wants.”

“Where’s Nix?” I asked Qian.

“I had to send him away.”

“Send him where?”

“To the other endpoint found in your gate remote,” she said. “Now, give it back to me.”

Other endpoint… assuming no one changed them, that could be either the power station in Xinzhongzi, or the charge station restroom in Jangbong.

“Then what?”

“Then you’re going to make this attack on the power grid stop,” she said. “Right now Hangfei has power, but that could change at any minute. I know that you came up with the idea to black out the power in Hangfei, and by extension, the thirty-two haan colonies. I know that with the help of these other humans you were able to turn that idea into a concrete plan, and that less than twenty-four hours ago you put that plan into effect. We are in immediate danger of being exposed. That makes you a threat to me, and to all haan.”

“It’s just the truth,” I said. “I just want everyone to see the truth.”

“You will be shown the truth in due time, but now is not that time.”

“I say it is.”

“Your government does not agree. They speak for you, do they not?”

“Not for me,” I said. “No.”

“You live in this country. You enjoy the quality of life it provides. If your interests aren’t served by your leaders, you could always try and make your way somewhere else.”

“Why don’t you try and make your way somewhere else?”

“Because we can’t,” she said. “And as you now know, this world exists in our reality now. This may not be the planet we knew, but the solar system, the galaxy, and even the universe are all part of our reality now, not yours. It’s been kept from you, to keep you calm until you are capable of understanding, but other parts of the world have, by now, discovered the small changes in physical laws, additional planets, the life forms on the satellite of what you called Jupiter. This could be a new era of discovery for you, and we will share with you all that we know—”

“When?” I asked.

“When we are ready,” she said. “When you are ready.”

“It’s been fifty years, Qian.”

“And yet still, you see how those outside our sphere of influence react. We need a solid, secure presence here. We need, to be honest, the protection of your world’s great superpower. Do you think the only thing keeping them at bay is our defense shield? It’s your vast army, air power, and nuclear arsenal. We need your protection. When we have it fully we will proceed, but I warn you, I will not let one small group of humans undo all of this. Compared to the future we offer, your lives are inconsequential.”

“We can’t shut it down,” Vamp cut in. “The failure is cascading out of control, but it shouldn’t—”

“That’s not good enough. I want the attack stopped. If it isn’t, I’ll kill each one of you, starting with this one.” She shook Shuang’s dangling body.

“He’s telling the truth,” I said. “We can’t stop it but the whole city won’t lose power, there’s a power station we didn’t know about that’s keeping it from tripping. The power company will figure out a way to fix it, and—”